Nelson Évora

At the Beijing Olympic Games, Nelson Évora became Olympic champion in the triple jump, with a mark of 17.67m.

Before the race, the triple jumper revealed his strategy: “I’m going to do a kamikaze jump and jump to infinity. I have nothing to lose, as I’ve never won an Olympic medal”. The emotion was visible after the historic jump on 21 August: “I still can’t believe I won. Everything happened so fast. It was a dream for me”.

The Benfica player was the first Portuguese Olympic champion in a technical discipline and the fourth in athletics, being the youngest, at the age of 24. He also achieved the feat of combining the Olympic title with that of world champion, won in 2007, becoming the first Portuguese male athlete to hold both titles at the same time.

Nelson Évora heard that the Cuban Arnie David Girat, one of his most dangerous opponents, had suffered a small injury and asked a special insole to be sent from Lisbon to offer him. Girat jumped with the insole and at the end ran to embrace the Portuguese athlete.